Bryan Allen has arguably been the Hurricanes’ best defenseman in this very forgettable season. He’s played 18-20 minutes a night, is usually given the toughest assignments and has posted a 4.5 Corsi Rel. rating, which is the best among defensemen. Not only that, but he has been outperforming the entire defense corps when it comes to creating and preventing scoring chances. Despite his great play, Allen’s seen his role decrease by a lot over the past few weeks. Was Kirk Muller the reason for this? We’ll find out after the jump.

Time on ice and head-to-head reports are something that I always keep a close eye on when I do my scoring chance reports and I can’t help but notice how little minutes Allen has been playing in the six games since Muller took over. Check out the table below for an illustration.

Allen during Muller’s six games

Opp

EV TOI

SC Diff

Corsi Diff

Znet

Forwards Faced

FLA

18.2

3

21

-3

Campbell

Versteeg

Fleischmann

NYR

11.65

-3

-12

0

Mitchell

Boyle

Hagelin

PIT

12.5

-1

0

1

Martin

Bortuzzo

Orpik

CGY

12.65

0

-1

-3

Butler

Tanguay

Bouwmeester

EDM

13.46

7

8

0

Sutton

Hemsky

Horcoff

WPG

14.06

-3

4

-1

Jones

Bogosian

Kane

Znet = amount of shifts started in the offensive zone compared to defensive zone.

Allen was in his “regular” role on the shutdown pair with Tim Gleason against Florida, played a terrific game but saw his ice time go down dramatically after that. In the five games after that, he was placed on the third pairing with Derek Joslin and Muller either matched him up with second-tier competition (NYR) or didn’t put him up against anyone in particular. He’s also been getting easier zone starts compared to his normal workload this year.

Is his performance the problem? His only really bad performance was against the Rangers where he was on ice for four total goals against. He also struggled against Pittsburgh and Winnipeg but aside from those three games, he hasn’t been overwhelmingly bad in the Muller era. He hasn’t been nearly as good as he was for most of the season but I’m not sure what motivated Muller to demote him so quickly. Things become even more confusing when you see how his replacements on the shutdown pair have performed.

Opp

Replacement

EV TOI

SC Diff

Corsi Diff

Znet

NYR

Faulk

18.2

1

16

4

PIT

Faulk

18.9

-5

-17

-2

CGY

Faulk

18.25

-4

3

1

EDM

McBain

18.016

0

-1

-5

WPG

McBain

20.116

-10

-15

-4

Justin Faulk was playing in Allen’s spot with Gleason on the shutdown pair for three games under Muller and was only able to outchance his opponent’s once. Although, that pairing was receiving a lot more offensive zone starts than normal in the Ranger game so that’s an odd stat. Faulk is another player who has seen his role change under Muller as he played with the newly acquired Jaroslav Spacek in a more offensive role against Edmonton and Jamie McBain took over in his place. McBain had a solid game against the Oilers when you factor in the zone starts but a horrible game against the Jets.

My initial thought is that this was all Muller’s doing but one thing I noticed is that Allen’s minutes were being reduced under Maurice, as well.

Opp

EV TOI

SC Diff

Corsi Diff

Znet

Forwards Faced

BUF

15.2

6

12

0

Pominville

Roy

Vanek

TOR

20.95

7

24

-2

Phaneuf

Liles

Connolly

PHI

17.93

-2

-6

1

Carle

Mezsaros

Marshall

MTL

14.76

3

2

-6

Gorges

Subban

Cole

WPG

15.9

1

-6

-1

Little

Kane

Wheeler

OTT

9.35

3

4

2

Karlsson

Phillips

Spezza

It was in the Montreal game when Allen began to see a decline in minutes but he was still used in important situations and the same goes for the Jets game. His minutes look reduced in the Ottawa game because of the nine powerplays Carolina had but he was slightly protected in terms of zone starts. So, we can conclude that Maurice was reducing his time on ice a little but his role stayed the same.

Allen’s been on ice for more goals lately but that was bound to happen soon because his PDO was well over 1000 due to a high on-ice save percentage which was not going to sustain with how the Canes goaltending has been. The important thing is that Allen has been a +20 in corsi under Muller, has a +3 scoring chance differential and is still outperforming most of the defense. Unless Allen is nursing an injury, I don’t see much of a reason to keep him from playing tough minutes while McBain and Justin Faulk are getting plowed in the same role.